It is now March and time seems to be flying by. Again, it has been a busy month between starting a few projects,vacationing with my family, attending another conference and now I am in the capital getting over pneumonia.
At the beginning of the month I had a wonderful, week-long vacation. The best part about it was that I got to see some of my family - my mom, my dad and one of my brothers, Matt (I did miss the rest of you boys and you too Lauren!). We traveled up to the Samana peninsula where we had rented a house and spent the week playing in the water, exploring and visiting. It was a wonderful time. Some of MY highlights of the vacation were: going whale watching, washing my clothes in a washing machine, seeing my family and hearing their thoughts about the DR, hot showers, an always available/flushing toilet, playing in the ocean and of course, watching them struggle with spanish (now they know how I feel). It was really great though because they were able to see some of the culture. Between driving on the dirt roads with moto's zipping by in every direction, going to markets, working with unreliable internet/electricity/water, waiting while our realtor lady was 4 hours late and interacting with Dominican people I feel like they had a good vacation but also got to see a little glimpse into my life. They also brought me some fun stuff, my dad gave me a much needed haircut (hate to say it dad but as good as it looks, it is kind of uneven, I would stick to Insurance) and updated me on everything back home. It was hard to see them go and even harder to go back to my site but it was definitely worth it and my fingers are crossed they will come back soon.
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| Mi padre cutting my hair. |
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| The beach. |
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| Matt with a drunken Dominican. |
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| Whale watching. |
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| At dinner. |
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| Matt with a machete. |
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| At lunch on the beach. |
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| Mi madre & I in the ocean. |
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| Lobster lunch on the beach. |
When I got back to my site, my little shadow, Frailin, was sitting in the front of my house waiting for me. He kept asking "what did you bring me, what is in those bags?" I had brought back two more bags than I had left with, one full of clothes (and jeans, thanks Brig!) and the other had four swimming noodles, some goggles and a ball. My family and I had bought some noodles for the ocean and I wanted to bring them back to my site because on the weekends I try to go to the river with the kids and teach them how to swim. It was pretty hilarious because before I knew it, there were a handful of kids in my house looking at the noodles having no idea what they were. They of course start hitting each other with them, knocking everything over in my house and when I explain to them what they are they didn't seem to get it. Next thing I know, I step out of the front of my house and Frailin is sitting there eating one of them, little red pieces everywhere and he just giggles. I handed over the goggles to one of the older kids, I had promised him I would bring some back because he had been making a spear gun to catch fish in the river. Watching him make it was unbelievable and by the end of the day he had come back with four tiny fish, fried them and ate them for dinner.
Sometime between visiting with people in my community, playing with the kids, organizing/having meetings and preparing for an upcoming conference, I had gotten sick. I had a horrible fever and a pretty bad cough but I had a lot to do before Thursday so I just let it go. I would send Frailin to get me Ibuprofen and then try to rest but it was really hard without someone coming to my door with tea, warm buckets of water for me to bath or shots of strange oil that would "cure me by tomorrow". Wednesday evening we had a girls group meeting and I packed my things up for the conference and left Thursday morning with two 18 year old boys for the capital. I stopped in the medical office, got some medicine (and a lovely package, thanks mobit!) and off we went to the Deportes para la Vida conference (sports for life). The conference was great! It is a relatively new initiative that Peace Corps is working with that uses activities/sports for HIV/AIDS awareness along with making good decisions, alcohol and drugs. The conference was a training conference which meant the boys and I would get trained so we can then go back to our community and do the activities. We are planning on talking with the teachers in our community and hoping to come into the school and give one activity/week in place of gym class. Vamos a ver. Taking youth from my community to conferences is such an awesome experience. It is so neat to see them participate, make new friends, learn and get excited about doing things in our community. I am really looking forward to starting this in Los Vasquez and I think the kids will love it. Anyways, after the conference, I sent my boys home and went back to the medical office and was told I need to go get blood tests and a chest x-ray. So now, I am here in the capital with pneumonia. I was told to rest so that is what I am doing. It was pretty funny going to get the chest x-rays, these poor nurses thought I was oblivious (I sometimes am), telling me to raise arms, take deep breaths etc. etc. I didn't understand half of what they were saying so I was just kind of moving around and they would just shake their heads and say "dios mia".
My girls group is going strong. They are so fun to work with and they have such a blast every week. This past week, we made collages, they loved it and my floors are still covered in glue and tiny shreds of magazines! I am hoping to form another group for younger girls, it has been hard because every week, new girls come to my house wanting to participate but it also throws things off a little. Right now have about 16 girls, ages 14-19 that have attended all the meetings and then a handful that want to be part of it so we will see if they come the following week and so forth, I am holding it in my house but I am going to have to move it because there is not enough room. Either way, I am very lucky and happy they want to be a part of it so it has been a great project to start with and learn from.
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| Making collages in my house. |
I thought I would include a little list of things I have found funny over the past month or so....
-Taking a 30 minute moto ride back to my site with 3 bags and holding four noodles.
-My dona giving me water to wash my hands with and seeing tadpoles swimming in it.
-Being the worlds worst mopper and having ten year old girls shake their heads at me because of it. They always scream at me "con animo Libby".
-Having dance parties in my house with the little kids with my new speakers my fam brought me.
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| Our car. |
-Watching my dad try to drive this mini car we rented over mountains, through the awful roads and smelling our brakes burning.
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| Cleaning dishes with Marielis (my bff). |
-My best friend in my community is ten.
-The kids have learned they can lock me inside my house. Aren't they precious?
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| Frailin in a bucket in my front yard. |
That is all for now! As always, I love hearing from everyone. Take Care & ROCK CHALK!
